York Mills Territory
Layout York Mills has a very large territory, consisting of a fortress-like base containing their core buildings, which surround a football field-sized inner courtyard, and a surrounding area consisting of buildings that are less vulnerable, easily replacable, or nice to have but not vital to the survival of the gang. The base is a mish-mash of several buildings that has been connected and is built over with one roof, with one or maybe two floors. They can hide and defend themselves in their base if necessary. The way base is built is reminiscent of a Roman villa with a patio, or a medieval town. The base of York Mills is similar to a large shopping mall in size, but no bigger than it is possible for them to put up walls around it and keep it guarded. The base is located slightly southwest of the center of the territory, and contains the living quarters, gym, shower room, several bathrooms, recreation room/nursery, kitchen, food storage area, dining hall, doctor's office, lab area, War Room, and Weapons Storage rooms, all surrounding a central courtyard and garden. Their base constantly has guards posted at the boundaries, and a watch schedule is in place every night for the whole night. The outer area is less guarded. They keep watches, but can't guard the entire area and won't keep night watch as in the base. Farther from the base, the outer area is riddled with secret passageways, hidden storage areas and places to hide. The main entrance to the base is toward the east and north side, closer to the friendlier 401 gang than the hostile East Don gang. Even so, the entrance is well hidden and the path to 401 is roundabout and easy to get lost along. Beyond the main base, the south side of the York Mills territory is fairly inaccessible from the outside. It is bordered by a badly damaged and structurally unstable section of the Undercity. Those who know the area well can find one of a small handful of relatively safe secret paths to get in or out through the south of York Mills. The back entrances are guarded and scattered pretty far from each other. They can serve as emergency exits or strategic counterattack routes in case the gang is attacked. Much of the north of York Mills territory extends through a major robot shipping line that the gang raids frequently for supplies. Gang members patrol an area even farther north than the shipping line, toward the center of the city, where they may have a few caches of supplies hidden. Nothing sensitive like weapons or living areas would be contained there. York Mills often finds stray tweeners in this area. Patrols would take place regularly but not on a daily basis since the gang does not have to resources to have people guarding the large border area of their entire territory. Laboratory and War Room The laboratory is adjacent to or at least a short distance from and directly connected to a War Room. This is where the leaders would get together with the techs and plan out attacks and raids and the like. Both the Laboratory and the War room would be toward the south and center of the main base. These rooms are connected to the secret south entrance of York Mills that is the farthest from the main entrance, to allow easier transportation of weapons and such in and out of the territory. The Weapons Storage Room is also connected to the Lab and War Room and is only accessible to Gang Leaders and anyone they have given clearance to. Usually those are the people leading the missions. Courtyard In the center of the base there is a large, partially outdoor courtyard area, which is about the size of a football field. This area contains the garden, domestic pigeons and squirrels, and other supplies that the gang wants to keep in a well protected area. The courtyard sometimes serves as a large meeting place and is used for large public events like Lizzie's Bonding ceremony. The courtyard area was painstakingly consolidated into one central area by digging up concrete and rubble and bringing in soil to connect a series of what had once been small parks in the territory. The courtyard connects to the Kitchen by way of the storeroom, with passages between them. The area was designed this way for a number of reasons - one, direct passage from the courtyard to the storeroom is handy since the food grown in the gardens would be kept in storage. Direct passage from storage to the kitchen is also handy for obvious reasons. But also, direct passage from the kitchen to the courtyard allows for catering to large events in the courtyard as well as in the Dining hall. Mostly everyone would have access to the Store Room, except for young children. Areas around the courtyard To the east of the courtyard is the main dining hall. "The main hall was a big, open room that the gang used as a dining hall, conference room and party hall. It had once been a big restaurant and there were still some original tables and chairs in there, as well as other tables, chairs, benches, sofas and odd furniture that the gang had found. It could be a cosy place during evenings with children playing around and later adults hanging around between watch-shifts, it could be busy and lively place during dinners and it could easily hold everyone if the leaders needed to speak to the gang about something. During parties, most of the room was cleared and the doors to the enclosed area outside were opened. The kitchen was located in a near-by room with the food stored away in the cellars beneath." East and slightly north of the courtyard, there is a Gym area that includes the Shower Room and some working toilets. On the other side of the courtyard, the west side, there is Recreational Room of sorts, containing a television set that the techs got working again, with a working VCR or DVD player, and a small selection of movies for people to watch. It also has a repaired boom box that can easily be brought to other areas, but is kept in the Rec Room. The Recreation Room is also commonly used as a "nursery" area for the children in the gang, with lots of toys and games, some made and some found. Adjacent to that is a Library, with a selection of books and magazines. These areas would be accessible from the Main Entrance, but not directly. Along the western border, south of the Rec Room and Library, would be the Doc's office. There would also be a smaller bathroom facility in this area. Finally, all of the residential rooms would be concentrated in the south of the main base, where it is safest. The leaders have their quarters closest to the War Rooms, toward the center of the area south of the courtyard.